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Turley warns ‘Washington’s Whoo-Hoo’ moment over Trump indictments could boomerang with a vengeance

August 18, 2023 | | Print Article

Jonathan Turley says the media’s coverage of former President Donald Trump’s indictment in Georgia “borders on the indecent” and warns that “Washington’s ‘Whoo-H00’ moment” could spell “disaster” for politicians and political pundits “if the 2024 election becomes another vote against the establishment.”

In an opinion piece for The Messenger, Turley calls out by name those liberals in the media and their celebratory antics over Trump’s “now roughly 100 criminal charges” in “four different indictments.”

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow “interviewed Hillary Clinton in a segment that began with the two liberal figures laughing joyfully” before Clinton “regained her composure and solemnly declared her ‘profound sadness’ at this moment,” Turley writes.

Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki “pushed book clubs to adopt the indictments for collective reading.”

Former Democratic Senator and MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill “was in open rapture.” McCaskill “proclaimed ‘the good news is we finally have Rudy Giuliani indicted. Whoo-hoo! That makes me very happy,'” Turley notes.

And “MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell took a moment to celebrate a ‘strong black woman standing up to Donald Trump,’ adding a race element to the celebratory charging moment.”

“If you watched the last few days of cable programming, you would think that Porn Hub was about to introduce a new fetish category for ‘Trump Indictments,'” the George Washington University Law School professor states.

But according to Turley, “These ‘Whoo-hoo’ moments are not shared by many who fear that these indictments are criminalizing political speech and chilling future challenges to elections.”

“For many,” he writes, “it is hard to get to beyond the name on the caption to consider the implications of downstream implications of these sweeping indictments.”

Turley goes on to state that some of the crimes Trump is accused of — many of which, in the Georgia indictment, are centered around “political speech” — “could as easily apply to Democrats in past challenges.”

Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams, Clinton’s former general counsel, Marc Elias, and a host of other Democrats, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi all challenged previous elections, he explains.

“In both the indictments by Special Counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the prosecutors simply declare that Trump and his team knew that there was no voting fraud and therefore can be jailed for contesting the election of Joe Biden,” Turley writes. “No one suggested that the challenges in 2004 and 2016 had merit, but they were celebrated not prosecuted.”

Those who are celebrating Trump’s legal woes, he states, are ignoring the “anger” that is building among American voters, Turley warns.

“As politicians and pundits conga-line around this story, there is little concern over the growing anger and divisions in the country,” he writes. “A recent poll shows the country divided in half on the charges. Among the 53 percent favoring the charges are 85% of Democrats. Less than half of independents and only 16% of Republicans favor the charges. Other polls show 55 percent of the public viewed the earlier indictments as ‘politically motivated.'”

The “political game” that pundits are playing, he says, is a “dangerous” one.

“Many pundits are fully aware of the impact these cases (and the public celebrations) are likely to have on the Republican base,” Turley writes. “They hope that it will secure the nomination for Trump, thereby securing an easy opponent for the general election. Yet, they are also playing a dangerous political game if they overplay (or over-celebrate) this moment.”

Trump, he reminds readers, “swept into power on an anti-establishment movement that took Washington by surprise.”

“The establishment has now given Trump an even greater appeal as a statement of defiance,” he states, “particularly if Democratic prosecutors seek to jail him.”

Though many who oppose the indictments are also against Trump as a candidate, Turley warns, “That can easily change if the 2024 election becomes another vote against the establishment as opposed to a vote for Donald Trump.”

 

Melissa Fine
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